—22 — O’Shaughnessy’s • Dr. Tod’s Legacy

When Tod Met Merle (Or, One Man’s Closure is Another Man’s Torture)

When Merle Haggard and the Strangers were com- They rot their minds and bodies with white lightning And how, I asked, did Mr. and Mrs. Haggard respond ing to the Oakland Paramount in the Spring of ‘05, I Strewing highways with slaughter of the drunks to the sidewalk serenade? “They seemed a little taken asked Tod if his 11-year-old daughter might want to go. While the cops are raiding bedrooms aback,” said Tod, matter-of-factly. “Not particularly “Maybe,” he said. “She’s currently into Elvis.” Then he Of the marijuana smoking leftist punks. amused. But it was some closure for me.” added, to my surprise, “I met Merle once.” Although Merle Haggard may have been reluctant to Refrain: I’m glad I’m not an okie from Muskogee Their paths had crossed outside the Redding airport talk politics outside the Redding airport with a stranger one Sunday afternoon in 1997 or ’98. “It was not long Where the mind and the conscience are asleep Frightened and kept ignorant from childhood —a singer-songwriter-psychiatrist— he certainly had after Prop 215 passed,” Mikuriya recollected. “I was Is it any wonder that they act like sheep? his own reasons for deploring the marijuana prohibi- flying up there quite frequently to conduct weekend tion. clinics in Red Bluff,” i.e. to see patients who were afraid The local campus hero is the jock strap. In April, 1999, Haggard explained to a Boston to discuss their cannabis use with their own doctors, or Scholarship and brand new shiny car Globe reporter that Canada used to be part of his New whose doctors were afraid to issue approvals. Making business for the abortionist England tour, but by 1990 the indignity of crossing the Tod recognized and introduced himself to the musi- who pays the sheriff who runs the local bar border had become unacceptable. “If they find a seed cian and the woman he was with, who turned out to of marijuana in your car or bus, they’ll run it all over American Legion and VFW veterans be Haggard’s wife and manager. Tod explained what the news,” Haggard said. he had been doing in Red Bluff —“conferring legality March down the flag-draped Main street twice a year Then sit around drinking beer and watching pornies “I’ve got 30 people working for me. There is liable on medical marijuana users.” And then, Tod said, “I Just in case you’d wonder if they’re queer. to be a seed of marijuana. So it makes it very uninviting asked him why he was stand-offish on the issue while to go into Canada, knowing that the United States is his buddy Willie Nelson spoke out.” Nixon, Mitchell, Agnew are their heroes going to harass you coming back. How did the Haggards respond? And the Indo China war’s a holy cause “They snatched some buses from people I won’t “They indicated that self-censorship was necessary The widow’s flags on our sons’ pine boxes, name, and buses are not cheap. It costs us seven or in order not to endanger his career.” Repay us for a war outside the laws. eight years of our lives to pay for these buses, and they Tod decided not to push it. He told the Haggards just take ‘em. Like I say, you can’t personally shake Sex education was sent here by the devil that when “Okie From Muskogee” had come out in the people down that work for you. I’m not going to do early ‘70s, he’d written “an answer song.” We hear an aging pious preacher bray. Keep our children ignorant as we are that. You don’t know who’s doing what and who isn’t, And then, a capella on the sidewalk outside the ter- And the welfare rolls keep rising day by day but this ‘zero tolerance’ thing they’ve got going is re- minal, Tod sang for them his old expression of outrage ally amazing. They’ve got private enterprise building and retaliation: Refrain prisons now. It’s scary. It’s overkill.” —Fred Gardner